TUESDAY • NOVEMBER 27, 2012
CHICAGOMAROON.COM
THE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO SINCE 1892
ISSUE 15 • VOLUME 124
Obama strategist reflects on election Egyptian politician optimistic for new gov’t Jennifer Standish Associate News Editor
In his first public forum since the election, David Axelrod, senior strategist for President Obama’s reelection campaign, spoke on Monday reflecting on the 2012 presidential race and his goals for the future at the Institute of Politics. JULIA REINITZ | THE CHICAGO MAROON
Ankit Jain Senior News Staff David Axelrod (A.B. ’76), one of President Barack Obama’s closest aides and the communications director of his 2012 reelection campaign, dissected the recent presidential election and previewed
Institute of Politics events yesterday evening at the Logan Arts Center. Axelrod said he thought the seeds of Obama’s victory were planted on the day of the 2010 midterm elections. “The gravitational pull of the Republican Party from the right became so
strong in that midterm election that it was clear to me that any Republican presidential candidate would have to deal with those forces to become the nominee—forces which went against the demographic and social trends of the country,” he said. It was because of this
underlying dynamic, and internal polling that consistently showed Obama in the lead, that Axelrod said he was confident of an Obama win. Axelrod said the Romney campaign’s inability to define Romney on their own terms was another big AXELROD continued on page 2
Former Egyptian presidential candidate Dr. Abdelmoneim Abol Fotouh, who unsuccessfully ran in the election held earlier this year, spoke to a packed audience in International House on Monday about the future of Egypt under its new democracy. According to Fotouh, whose Arabic was translated by the event’s moderator, Dr. Abdullah Al-Arian, Egypt’s newfound democracy is here to stay. “Regardless of where [parties] sit on the political spectrum all have agreed that there’s no going back to the dictatorship and subjugation and that democratic institutions are what have to arise from this process,” he said. Last year, Fotouh resigned from a leadership position in the currently ruling political party, the Muslim Brotherhood, and is now the head of the new “Strong Egypt Party.” Fotouh argued that recent political unrest resulting from President Morsi’s decree temporarily preventing Egyptian courts from
overturning his decisions indicates the democracy’s durability. “The January 25th uprising is a sign that things will never go back to the way they were,” he said. “Even after two or three months, the idea that the president could immunize himself against any accountability sent many Egyptians into the street.” Fotouh also shared his views on the Muslim Brotherhood and the role of the United States in the Middle East. Addressing the Muslim Brotherhood, Fotouh said he was concerned about its non-secular nature. “On the one hand they can be an advocacy organization for religious purposes but at the same time be a political party. I think those two things should be separated,” he said. “They must recognize that a democracy is not simply a means to achieve power but an end in and of itself.” When it comes to the U.S.’s role in the new Egyptian democracy, he asked for a hands-off approach. “The Egyptian people don’t wait for the U.S. to deEGYPT continued on page 2
Sky’s the limit For one Harris worker, the dead come to have fun for U of C prof Stephanie Xiao Senior News Staff
Qianyi Xu News Contributor Middle schoolers across the country will be able to reach for the stars from their classrooms beginning next fall, with the help of U of C astrophysics professor Richard Kron and former student Dan Reichart (Ph.D. ’00). The Skynet Junior Scholars program, initially proposed by Kron and Reichart over a decade ago, gives middle school students access to a professional network of robotic telescopes. The program launched October 1 thanks to a $1.6 million grant from the National Science Foundation. Aimed at preparing the students for careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields, the program will operate using telescopes at the U of C’s Yerkes Observatory in Wisconsin, the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill, the
Every time zombie novelist and University spokesperson Scott Kenemore writes a book, he’s told it will be his last. “My publisher thought zombies were a trend at first. I’d do a book, and they’d be like, ‘Just so you know, Scott, this is probably going to be the last one,’” Kenemore said. “And now I’ve done seven.” “I feel like a drug dealer, because they’re trying to quit, but can’t.” Kenemore joined the University this past year as a communications associate at the Harris School of Public Policy. But his true passion involves pondering the moral complications surrounding the realm of the living dead. “Some people think my entire preoccupation is just gross. Nasty zombies coming back from the dead. But I think they’re [a] riveting core icon that can create interesting narrative situations and conflicts in
TELESCOPES continued on page 3
ZOMBIES continued on page 3
Scott Kenemore, a communications associate at the Harris School of Public Policy, is also a prolific fiction writer and has published seven zombie novels to date. SYDNEY COMBS | THE CHICAGO MAROON
IN VIEWPOINTS
IN ARTS
IN SPORTS
A name of one’s own » Page 4
Box office turkeys: Thanksgiving movie roundup » Page 7
Augustana Vikings invade, conquer Ratner Center as Maroons fall to 3-1 » Back Page
Attenberg does suburban family drama medium-well » Page 7
The Winter Season, In Photos » Page 11
Students must work for justice in Palestine » Page 5
THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | November 27, 2012
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NEWS IN BRIEF Egypt must face future alone, Fotouh says
Axelrod sees IOP as “taste” of politics
U of C programming team wins regionals
AXELROD continued from front
Editor’s Note: Kevin Wang is a Maroon staffer. U of C’s computer programming team, Whiteboard Erasers, won the Mid-Central USA competition for the first time on November 3 in the Association of Computing Machinery/International Collegiate Programming Contest, qualifying them for the competition’s world championship in Russia. Previously, Whiteboard Erasers has gotten to the international stage as a wild card team by coming in second or third in the regional competition, according to a University news release announcing the team’s victory. This year, another U of C team, Conjurers of Cheap Tricks, came in second. Both U of C teams completed all eight problems in the competition, which took place in Ryerson Physical Laboratory, but Whiteboard Erasers finished them more quickly. The current Whiteboard Erasers team is made up of third-year Naren Hazareesingh, fourthyear Bill Waldrep, and third-year Kevin Wang. —Rebecca Guterman
Booth prof appointed as Treasury Dept. advisor Booth professor Anil Kashyap has been appointed to serve on the Financial Research Advisory Committee of the U.S. Department of the Treasury for his expertise in banking and monetary policy. The Department announced Kashyap’s appointment, along with 29 other professionals in economics, finance, data and risk management, and information technology. According to a University release, the committee works to advise the Office of Financial Research in the Department of Treasury so they can improve and develop the ways they perform “data management, data standards, and research methodologies.” Kashyap began working at Booth in 1991 and also conducts research on business cycles, corporate finance, and price setting. This is not the first advisory committee position for Kashyap—he is also a consultant for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and advises the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. —Rebecca Guterman
Dr. Abdelmoneim Abol Fotouh, a presidential candidate in the Egyptian elections last May, speaks about his vision for the future of Egypt during an event in I-House on Monday night. JAMIE MANLEY | THE CHICAGO MAROON EGYPT continued from front
cide whether or not Egypt wants democracy or doesn’t want a democracy, for Egypt, or for any country, for that matter,” he said. The possibility of parties to use democracy as a way to acquire power, for Fotouh “is a challenge for [Egypt] to internally
Interested in...
face—not one for other countries to intervene in.” The talk was put on by The Student Forum on Political Thought, a coalition of U of C student organizations that addresses current events they think are overlooked by academics, politicians, and the media.
boost to the Obama campaign. “I didn’t think [the Romney campaign] emphasized who he was enough,” Axelrod said. “That of course left an opening for him to be defined along some of the business practices that have become well known.” Axelrod also criticized the strong emphasis on polling in this election cycle, arguing that many of these polls were not methodologically sound. “Any two kids with an abacus can do a poll at the corner grocery store, and some national news organization will cover it as if it’s news,” he said. In a post-event interview with the Maroon, Axelrod talked of his future goals regarding the Institute of Politics. “I want to give [students] a taste of what it’s all about. And I think for me success will be measured by whether a significant number of students who pass through the program end up, in
Medicine
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some form or fashion, in the public arena,” Axelrod said. He said he plans to spend about half of his time on campus running the Institute and half traveling for other duties. Axelrod said he started the Institute in part to give students opportunities to engage in politics that weren’t available to him as an undergraduate at the U of C. “I used to joke…that I couldn’t find anybody who wanted to talk about anything after the year 1800,” he said. “That’s one of the things that I want to remedy with this Institute of Politics.” Axelrod made sure to deliver some practical advice for students considering their future careers. “I always tell young people, you can make a 30-year plan, but it’s very rare that you can actually execute on it. It’s better to follow your passions if you can, and go where life leads you. And where life has led me has been extraordinary.”
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Both genders willing to negotiate pay, study says A study co-authored by economics professor John List found that women are as willing as men to negotiate a salary if given the chance, but still may be less likely than men to apply for a job regardless of the opportunity to negotiate a salary. When replying to a fixed salary offer, eight percent of women and 11 percent of men initiated salary negotiations, according to a University news release that described the results of the study earlier this month. Replying to an offer that came with a negotiable salary, 24 percent of women initiated negotiations, compared to 22 percent of men. The study, which was the first to look at gender differences in salary negotiations using a field experiment, also found that when a job offer stated that a salary was fixed, men had a 47 percent probability of applying, compared to 32 percent for women. When a posted salary was negotiable, women had a 33 percent chance of applying, while the probability for men dropped to 42 percent. —Sam Levine
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THE CHICAGO MAROON | NEWS | November 27, 2012
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“Would I kill this person for a flashlight?”: Zombie writer explores moral dilemmas through novels ZOMBIES continued from front
ways that other pop culture monsters often can’t,” he said. He cited the division between good and evil as one such conflict. “One of the wonderful things about zombies is that they create that stress test that forces you to think about those moral decisions. Am I a good guy or a bad guy? Would I kill this person for a flashlight if I really needed a flashlight?” As part of that stress test, Kenemore prefers to design his monsters as nonthreateningly as possible to emphasize the role of human, rather than zombie,
fault and misjudgments on the destructive extent of an outbreak. “I like to make my zombies the most desiccated, gross, and handicapped so that there’s just absolutely no excuse for getting eaten by one,” Kenemore said. And if someone does, according to Kenemore, it is due to “personal flaws like pride and overconfidence and arrogance and depending on social services that aren’t there in an outbreak.” His most recent work, Zombie, Illinois, was released last month and draws upon his experiences working and living on the
South Side of Chicago. Many of the characters in the book were based on people he’s met since moving to the city. “I liked the idea of thinking about how different neighborhoods across the city would do in a zombie outbreak,” Kenemore said. “How would these institutions, how would these churches, community centers, these sheisty local politicians deal with the neighborhood? How would they do under a stress test like a zombie outbreak?” Kenemore’s love of horror writing took root in his early childhood. It was during this time that he
first discovered the stories of H.P. Lovecraft, which he deemed “the best thing anyone has ever done ever.” While attending Kenyon College in Gambier, Ohio—which served as inspiration for his sixth novel, Zombie, Ohio—he was introduced to George Romero’s now-classic zombie films, such as Night of the Living Dead. After graduating from Columbia University’s Writing MFA program, Kenemore settled down as a “typical frustrated writer” with little luck getting his horror stories published. “I’m still sort of finding my way. It’s weird being a
writer, because I’m 35. I’m straight up old, but you get called a young writer until you’re about 45 because it’s very difficult to get a book published. It’s very difficult to get your name out there as a writer,” Kenemore said. Kenemore started to write zombie novels at the suggestion of a friend in the publishing industry, quickly finding success in this new staple of the horror genre. While some have written off zombies as a passing trend, Kenemore feels they are just beginning to find legitimacy. “George Romero made Night of the Living Dead
in 1968, and we’re still seeing the impact of that piece of art today. I think that’s how art works. It can take 50 years for the impact of good art to be felt and sink in. I think zombies are just starting to percolate to their appropriate place in the pop culture pantheon right now.” Kenemore pointed out how the relative youth of zombie culture lends itself to further creative shaping. “No one knew zombies could say ‘brains’ until 1985,” Kenemore said. “Someone out there is going to write the great zombie novel. That field is wide open.”
Hundreds of students to reach outerspace through new robotic telescopes with help of U of C TELESCOPE continued from front
National Radio Astronomy Observatory in West Virginia, and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific in California. “We have begun work on developing some of the interfaces that will enable middle school youth to use telescopes around the world robotically. The students use the Internet to control telescopes—they specify where to point and what kind of exposure to take— and they download the image and analyze it. The overall idea is the system of telescopes, collecting data, [and] analysis of data,” Kron said in an e-mail. Kron will lead the program at the Yerkes Observatory. The Web site Phys.org reported earlier
this month that an estimated 1,400 middle school students from Wisconsin, North Carolina, and West Virginia will benefit from the Junior Scholars Program over the next three years. The program will train educators through the United States Department of Agriculture’s 4-H youth program, which focuses on youth development, especially in agricultural areas. “Yerkes has local expertise in connecting astronomical research to younger students in several ways, including digital imaging. And because of its rural location, the project’s connection to 4-H is thus fairly natural,” Kron said.
Recruiting the first cadre of students will begin in the fall, but, in the meantime, the heads of the program will be organizing workshops for teachers. If it’s successful in the initial years, Skynet Junior Scholars could expand. “In partnership with 4-H, if the program works very well at state level, we hope to extend it to the whole nation,” Kron said. Since its founding in 2006, the broader Skynet program has integrated robotic telescopes from all over the world. The program has produced nearly five million exposures for approximately 30,000 professional astronomers, elementary school students, high school students, undergraduates, and the gen-
eral public, Phys.org reported. The Skynet Junior Scholar program is modeled after UNC Chapel Hill’s distributed network of robotic telescopes operated by the school’s students, faculty, and staff. By expanding to middle school students, Reichart said that the scientists hope to start enthusiasm for STEM fields early on. “[Studies have] shown that the best age to introduce people to pursue a STEM career is at the middle school age, and by the end of high school, the opportunity to spark an interest in science has diminished. Our primary goal is to inspire students to go into the STEM discipline by developing the correct curricula,” Reichart said.
CORRECTIONS The November 20 article “SSN lays down landlord law” misstated the speakers’ advice on withholding partial rent from landlords. It also included unnecessary information about the relationship between MAC and other organizations and tenants. The November 20 article “Two students, one alum arrested in budget cut protests” misstated the membership status of Noah Moskowitz and Jacob Swenson in Southside Solidarity Network (SSN).
CLASSIFIEDS Classified advertising in The Chicago Maroon is $3 for each line. Lines are 45 characters long including spaces and punctuation. Special headings are 20-character lines at $4 per line. Submit all ads in person, by e-mail, or by mail to The Chicago Maroon, Ida Noyes Hall, Lower Level Rm 026, 1212 E. 59th St., Chicago, IL 60637. The Chicago Maroon accepts Mastercard & Visa. Call (773) 702-9555. 3 BR TWO STORY HOUSE Spacious sunny home at Oakland and Lake Park. Island kitchen, dw, in-unit laundry, fp. 2.5 Ba inc Jacuzzi. Central air, large deck. RENT $1,850 plus util. Call Gail 312-399-0773
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The Hand of Fate Saturday, December 1 8 PM | Mandel Hall 1131 E. 57th Street, in Hyde Park Barbara Schubert, Conductor featuring 2012 Concerto Competition Co-Winner Samantha Fan, violin Verdi’s Overture to La Forza del Destino, Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto No. 1, and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 Donations requested: $10 general/$5 students 773.702.8069 | music.uchicago.edu Persons who need assistance should call 773.702.8484
VIEWPOINTS
Editorial & Op-Ed NOVEMBER 27, 2012
Finding a healthy alternative SHCS should expand healthcare options for those who need quick care but not an ER admission
The student newspaper of the University of Chicago since 1892 JORDAN LARSON Editor-in-Chief SHARAN SHETTY Editor-in-Chief COLIN BRADLEY Managing Editor HARUNOBU CORYNE Senior Editor DOUGLAS EVERSON, JR Senior Editor SAM LEVINE Senior Editor CELIA BEVER News Editor REBECCA GUTERMAN News Editor LINDA QIU News Editor AJAY BATRA Viewpoints Editor DAVID KANER Viewpoints Editor EMILY WANG Viewpoints Editor EMMA BRODER Arts Editor HANNAH GOLD Arts Editor DANIEL RIVERA Arts Editor DANIEL LEWIS Sports Editor VICENTE FERNANDEZ Sports Editor MATTHEW SCHAEFER Sports Editor SONIA DHAWAN Head Designer BELLA WU Head Designer KEVIN WANG Online Editor ALICE BLACKWOOD Head Copy Editor DON HO Head Copy Editor BEN ZIGTERMAN Head Copy Editor
Last Wednesday, students received an e-mail from Alex Lickerman, assistant vice president for Student Health and Counseling Services (SHCS), informing them that several students had recently contracted norovirus, which causes gastrointestinal distress. A November 20 Maroon article (“ER visits prompt call to health dept.”) reported that six students went to the emergency room on the morning of November 16 and that additional students exhibited symptoms but did not end up going to the hospital. In the wake of this incident, it’s clear that the University needs a service which fills the gap between appointment-based care and emergency care. Because of its flexibility, a bona fide urgent care option could fill this void and better serve student needs. SHCS is currently the only affordable and viable option for students with a need for urgent care. Though its website states,
“You will usually be seen within 24–48 hours,” wait times for appointments often stretch up to a week, sometimes forcing students in need of medical attention to either wait it out or seek emergency medical care, neither of which are appropriate for many ailments. In addition, SHCS currently counts only five physicians, two advanced practice registered nurses, and two nurse practitioners among its providers, despite the fact that the service is meant to care for an undergraduate population of over 5,000. Another disappointing aspect of the SHCS’s coverage is its limited hours of operation. Though an urgent care clinic is offered in addition to SHCS’s 9 a.m.–5:30 p.m. weekday schedule, the clinic is still appointment-based and only open for three hours on Saturday morning. Student need often exceeds this narrow window, and those who become ill during an inconvenient time are left
with the uncomfortable decision between waiting and seeking possibly unnecessary emergency care. While nurses and physicians-oncall are promoted as after-hours options for students, they are only able to recommend whether a student should seek emergency medical attention or wait for an appointment during the week or on a Saturday morning. At peer institutions, students have at their disposal more extensive options for receiving urgent medical care. At Harvard, urgent care is available nights, weekends, and holidays. Similarly, Yale’s Acute Care Department offers students 24-hour service every day of the year for pressing medical issues which do not require a trip to the ER—a predicament which the SHCS does not address sufficiently. While the University of Chicago Medical Center has urgent care six days a week, it is offered by appointment only, and only to “established patients,” an
ill-defined category which likely excludes most students on the grounds that they rarely consult with hospital physicians. Though the stomach illness that recently struck was fortunately benign, six students went to the emergency room, while many others forwent immediate care until more suitable hours. This is an example of an illness that should not be foisted upon a busy ER, and which cannot be adequately handled by SHCS’s current structure: one that is not life-threatening, but requires urgent medical attention, and very possibly on a weekday or after normal business hours. In order to meet this important need, the University should look to emulate the urgent care offerings of its peer institutions and work to ensure a happy and healthy student body.
The Editorial Board consists of the Editors-in-Chief and the Viewpoints Editors.
JAMIE MANLEY Photo Editor
BEN POKROSS Assoc. News Editor
A name of one’s own
MADHU SRIKANTHA Assoc. News Editor
For this columnist, the name game is a losing battle
SYDNEY COMBS Photo Editor JOY CRANE Assoc. News Editor MARINA FANG Assoc. News Editor
JENNIFER STANDISH Assoc. News Editor ALICE BUCKNELL Assoc. Arts Editor SARAH LANGS Assoc. Sports Editor JAKE WALERIUS Assoc. Sports Editor JULIA REINITZ Assoc. Photo Editor
TYRONALD JORDAN Business Manager VIVIAN HUA Undergraduate Business Executive TAMER BARSBAY Director of Business Research QUERIDA Y. QIU External Director of Marketing IVY ZHANG Internal Director of Marketing VINCENT MCGILL Delivery Coordinator HYEONG-SUN CHO Designer CHELSEA FINE Designer ANDREW GREEN Designer SNEHA KASUGANTI Designer JANEY LEE Designer NICHOLAS ROUSE Designer CATIE ARBONA Copy Editor KEN ARMSTRONG Copy Editor AMISHI BAJAJ Copy Editor MARTIA BRADLEY Copy Editor SHANICE CASIMIRO Copy Editor CONNOR CUNNINGHAM Copy Editor LISA FAN Copy Editor ALAN HASSLER Copy Editor SHERRY HE Copy Editor
By Emma Thurber Stone Viewpoints Columnist I don’t know if you guys know this, but apparently there’s a girl who goes here named Emma Stone. Like the actress. Superbad. Zombieland. The Amazing Spiderman. That Emma Stone. She of the wide eyes and fiery geekgirl charm. But I am here to give you bad news: The Emma Stone who goes here is not a sultry redhead. She’s not dating Andrew Garfield. She doesn’t even like the movie Easy A. Unfortunately,
she is I. Many people find this disappointing. “You don’t understand,” I once had someone tell me, somewhat aggrievedly, after I introduced myself. “You don’t understand how hot Emma Stone is.” “Nice to meet you too,” I said. This is all new to me. I went to the same tiny school (full enrollment: 430 students in grades K–12) for 13 years. To everyone there, the notion that there was suddenly an actress parading around as me was briefly amusing but not particularly interesting. But that is not so in college. Not so at all. Of course, there are the obvious advantages. I am never short on icebreakers. And Googling me is a wasted effort: Of the 110,000,000 hits on a search for “Emma Stone” I am probably only
related to about 12, and that’s being generous. Internet invisibility is a rare gift in these Nosy Nancy times. But the common annoy-
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I get asked if I am trying to be funny when filling out official forms. “Nope,” I always say. “Are you?”
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ances of having to share my primary identifying trait are inescapable. These irritations are an army of nasty children that hides behind every corner, shooting me with rubber bands from their finger guns. I dread classes where
attendance is called. I get asked if I am trying to be funny when filling out official forms. “Nope,” I always say. “Are you?” To put it another way, sharing a name with someone far better known than you is like sharing a twin bed with a 12-foot-tall mountain troll. In such a situation, there are two possible strategies. You can push with all your might against the great wall of warty flesh, or you can close your eyes and try to pretend that the stench is just a figment of your imagination, and the hairy arm flung over your chest just an extra-lumpy throw pillow. I tried pushing, for a while. As everyone who has read my writing in this newspaper has probably noticed, one of my strategies has been to resuscitate the use of NAME continued on page 6
NISHANTH IYENGAR Copy Editor CECILIA JIANG Copy Editor
LINDSEY SIMON Copy Editor
An identity of crisis
ESTHER YU Copy Editor
Questioning who we are as a university is at the core of the U of C’s intellectual spirit
MICHELLE LEE Copy Editor JONAH RABB Copy Editor
The Chicago Maroon is published twice weekly during autumn, winter, and spring quarters Circulation: 5,500. The opinions expressed in the Viewpoints section are not necessarily those of the Maroon. © 2012 The Chicago Maroon, Ida Noyes Hall, 1212 East 59th Street Chicago, IL 60637 Editor-in-Chief Phone: 773.834.1611 Newsroom Phone: 773.702.1403 Business Phone: 773.702.9555 Fax: 773.702.3032 CONTACT News: News@ChicagoMaroon.com Viewpoints: Viewpoints@ChicagoMaroon.com Arts: Arts@ChicagoMaroon.com Sports: Sports@ChicagoMaroon.com Photography: Photo@ChicagoMaroon.com Design: Design@ChicagoMaroon.com Copy: CopyEditors@ChicagoMaroon.com Advertising: Ads@ChicagoMaroon.com
By Tyler Lutz Viewpoints Columnist Shortly after we return from winter break, campus media outlets will almost certainly be lighting up with giddy reports of another unprecedented jump in the volume of applications to
the College. A few months later, they’ll be buzzing about the (wholly unsurprising ) news that our acceptance rate continues to plummet. And, at some point, you’re almost guaranteed to read another article bemoaning the inexorable demise of the University of Chicago as we know it. To outsiders (and first-years), all the ruckus seems to paint a pretty clear picture of us as a university in the throes of an identity crisis, torn between a proud past and a bold future rich with opportunities. The reality, however, is a good deal more nuanced. Rather than pointing to
some kind of fatal fracture in the core of our identity as a university, the debate over who we are and where we’ll be in 10 years is an indisputable exercise of that elusive identity itself. You have good reason to worry that you’ll be graduating from a school bearing little superficial resemblance to the one you applied to. You should also be concerned about whether the administration is making the most of the unique opportunities for growth afforded to us by our history and decorated tradition of influential scholarship. But, as a matter of character, as long as we
can keep up the debate and resist the temptation to definitively resolve the question of our identity, I have no doubt that this institution will always remain, in its heart, the good old University of Chicago we know and love. What it means to be a U of C student is to never stop questioning what it means to be a U of C student. When you were a high school senior comparing prospective colleges, you might have made a list of the most outstanding characteristics of every school you were considering. Some had an awesome location, others an imIDENTITY continued on page 6
THE CHICAGO MAROON | VIEWPOINTS | November 27, 2012
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Students must work for justice in Palestine The recent conflict in the Middle East is the latest in a string of indignities suffered by the people of Gaza By Aseal Tineh, Zahed Haseeb, and Sami Kishawi Viewpoints Contributors Students oftentimes feel powerless or overwhelmed when it comes to the Palestine–Israel issue. But Israel’s latest assault on the Gaza Strip, enabled largely by material aid from the United States, presents us with a very clear opportunity to engage our campuses and communities, to raise awareness about Israel’s occupation of Palestine, and to campaign for justice for the Palestinian people. Following a two-week lull in violence, Israeli occupation forces indiscriminately shot and killed a 13-year-old boy playing soccer in front of his house in Gaza on November 8.
Two days after a ceasefire went into effect, Israel launched an air strike assassination of a Palestinian resistance leader who, as it was later revealed, had been formalizing a longterm ceasefire. This attack was followed by a weeklong aerial and naval assault on Gaza aimed at destroying its infrastructure, which resembled the strikes Israel had conducted during its 2008–2009 invasion of the territory. Journalists treated the assault as an isolated flareup in the region, with Gazan rockets once again to blame. The Israeli military tweeted that over a thousand rockets had been fired into southern Israel, refusing to mention that Israeli air strikes and cross-border
incursions since 2009 have far outnumbered Palestinian rocket attacks and overpowered any inbound projectiles. The consequences speak for themselves: In just one week, Israel killed 159 Gazans, mostly civilians. Gazan rockets, characterized by the Israeli government as a pervasive menace, killed three Israelis. What we see now is an extension of the blockade and siege implemented by Israel on the Gaza Strip in 2006 and 2007, respectively. Both are acts of war and have resulted in the subjection of 1.7 million Gazans to regular bombing campaigns, border closures, and controlled diets. Though few in number, there are students at the
University of Chicago who have experienced firsthand the destructive humanitar-
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ian impact of Israel’s siege on the Gaza Strip. U of C professor John Mearsheimer wrote in a recent piece for the London Review of Books that “Israel’s actions in Gaza are inextricably bound up
ISABEL OCHOA GOLD
PHYSICS WITH A
Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip occurred as part of a deeply entrenched system of oppression and injustice.
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THE CHICAGO MAROON
with its efforts to create a Greater Israel that stretches from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea,” thereby displacing the indigenous Palestinian population once and for all. This strateg y relies heavily on the United States for diplomatic cover and on the ‘Iron Wall’ approach of quite literally beating the Palestinian people into submission. Going as far back as Israel’s founding in 1948, its occupation and colonization of Palestine, and its brutal crackdown on Palestinian civil and human rights, are the oft-ignored realities that undermine Israel’s “self-defense” reasoning. They show how deeply and historically embedded Israel’s Iron Wall approach is. Gilad Sharon, son of former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, was hailed for urging his government to “flatten all of Gaza” the way the Americans had done with Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In addition, the United States’ unconditional support for Israel enables it to launch indiscriminate attacks against Gaza, such as the one that killed 11 members of the Al-Dalou family—including four children, four women, and one grandfather—earlier in the month. This diplomatic and financial cover for Israel presents students with a clear course of action. In 2005, representatives of Palestinian civil society called for a campaign of boycott, divestment, and sanctions against Israel until it complies with international law and humanitarian standards. Students across the nation proposed deshelving and divestment campaigns targeting institutions that help maintain Israel’s illegal occupation. In this school year alone, the call has seen much success. Last month, the student government at the
University of California, Irvine unanimously passed a resolution urging their institution to divest from companies that manufacture weapons for Israel’s military. Following the passage of the resolution at UC Irvine, the administration at Brown University considered a similar student proposition. Earlier in the year, students and faculty at New York University declared growing support for a campaign urging pension-fund giant TIAA-CREF to divest from companies that profit from Israel’s human rights violations against Palestinians. Other universities are planning to follow NYU’s lead. Here at the University of Chicago, Students for Justice in Palestine along with The Buddhist Association, the Hong Kong Students Association, Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan, the Muslim Students Associati on, and Students Organizing United with Labor took the lead in condemning Israel’s assault on the Gaza Strip in a joint statement released last week. It is the first step in an important project to raise awareness in our communities and challenge the status quo. Israel’s invasion of the Gaza Strip is not just a blip of violence in the Middle East. It occurred as part of a deeply entrenched system of oppression and injustice that is perpetuated by skewed information and unyielding material support from nations like the U.S. By chipping away at this advantage through our words and actions on campus and in our communities, we can help bring a resolute and just end to the occupation of Palestine. Aseal Tineh, Zahed Haseeb, and Sami Kishawi are students in the College and members of Students for Justice in Palestine.
Rockefeller Chapel presents ...
Marc-Antoine Charpentier
MESSE DE MINUIT POUR NÖEL FRIDAY NOVEMBER 30 7:30 PM
Marc-Antoine Charpentier Messe de Minuit pour Nöel (Christmas Midnight Mass), and music for Hanukkah and Christmas from around the world, including French and Polish traditional carols. Tickets are $20 online or at door, students with UChicago ID are free.
Tickets online at: rockefeller.uchicago.edu
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THE CHICAGO MAROON | VIEWPOINTS | November 27, 2012
The history of the University of Chicago has been marked by great debates over self-definition IDENTITY continued from page 4 pressive degree of lay prestige, still others a particularly strong athletic program or academic department. Under the U of C you penciled in, among other things, the ‘life of the mind,’ likely followed by a little question mark. And the question mark only gets bigger the more time you spend around here. That one sacred bond keeping us all together as a school is something that I, for one, have never heard adequately defined. Before you go parading under the banner of intellectualism to either support or refute the administration’s current policies, consider the wild diversity of aliases under which this ‘intellectualism’ masquerades. To me, intellectualism is nothing more than a sort
of irreverent playfulness coupled with an unshakable fascination with the world. Some find intellectualism in the pursuit of knowledge, others in the cultivation of certain habits of mind. A friend of mine not unconvincingly describes intellectualism as a sort of sociological fact—a term devoid of any real quantifiable or measurable substance but which nevertheless structures our interactions with others (similar, in this way, to ‘race’ or ‘caste’). I’m pulling a move straight out of Dean Boyer’s playbook here: In justifying the shifting of priorities which he has spearheaded during his tenure, Boyer is often quick to point out the inherently chimerical nature of the grand old U of C culture we like to imagine. Our history is punctu-
“
Much of what we now hold to be quintessentially U of C is the result of highly controversial policy changes.
”
ated by a series of far-reaching reforms; much of what we now hold to be quintessentially ‘U of C’ is the result of what were at the time highly controversial policy changes.
In short, the one continuous thread tying us both to our past and to each other is the fact that we never stop thinking about who we are and where we’re headed as a university. And this is no accident: It’s bound up in our foundational embrace of some form of intellectualism. There’s no question that change is in the Hyde Park air. I’m proud that we have neither mindlessly accepted nor rejected it, and that, instead, we have been able to enjoy a spirited debate about what this change means and where we should go with it in the future. For our sake, let’s all hope that the debate rages on. Tyler Lutz is a fourth-year in the College majoring in physics and English.
Sharing a name with a celebrity is like snuggling up to a mountain troll NAME continued from page 4 my middle name. This not only reminds others that I am not a hot movie star, but also reassures my ego that something about it is still unusual. I believed that this strateg y was working until I recently decided to complete the thought experiment for a name other than mine. At that point I was forced to accept the demoralizing truth that someone calling himself “Tom Thurber Cruise” would most likely not evade the problem of immediate name recognition and would also appear to be trying rather too hard. The veil of “Thurber” is therefore a thin one and, despite my meek urgings to the contrary, people here always seem to end up calling me by my celebrified name. The novelty for them, unfortunately for me, does not seem to wear off. We all think we’re original. Just as I entertain the ridiculous notion that I am the first thing people think of when they hear my name, many jokesters entertain
the even more laughable idea that I have not heard whatever Emma Stone pun they are about to throw at me. Even more oddly, people are often baffled that I do not spend more of my time chuckling to myself about how crazy and hilarious this whole thing is. I am told that I need a better sense of humor; I say that even the funniest joke cannot make a person laugh forever—especially when she herself is the joke. I know I’m n ot alone in all of this. In fact, this whole phenomenon goes way past the plight of celebrity doppelgangers. Many of us are associated at name or face value with people we do not choose and whom we do not necessarily admire. Our name or skin color or way of dressing is bound to link us inextricably to other people in the mind of whoever is watching. We know ourselves first; everyone else knows us second at best. It’s not a pleasant thing to think about. Pretending is better. It gets me through the little twinge of shame I feel when I
write my name, at least. When it comes to these things it is sometimes braver to admit that the fight is lost, which is why, tonight, when I snuggle up to my mountain troll bedfellow, I will imagine that he smells like roses; and
that one day he will stop snoring ; and that movie-star Emma Stone is no more of an Emma Stone than I. Emma Thurber Stone is a second-year in the College.
SUBMISSIONS The Chicago Maroon welcomes opinions and responses from its readers. Send op-ed submissions and letters to: The Chicago Maroon attn: Viewpoints 1212 East 59th Street Chicago, IL 60637 E-mail: Viewpoints@ChicagoMaroon.com The editors reserve the right to edit materials for clarity and space. Letters to the editor should be limited to 400 words. Op-ed submissions, 800 words.
The Fall 2012 Grey City Magazine is coming
Tuesday, December 4th The CHICAGO MAROON’s Quarterly Magazine
What to do about
Global Warming?* By Jennifer Standish
*the class
Fall 2012
Gay in Business School • Q&A with Daley • After Occupy • University Lobbying
In this Issue: Gay in Business School • Q&A with Daley • After Occupy • University Lobbying
ARTS
Trivial Pursuits NOVEMBER 27, 2012
Box office turkeys: Thanksgiving movie roundup Arts editors and contributors review three highly-anticipated movies that opened this past holiday weekend When I asked a friend to come see David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook with me, she groaned and said, “No.” Even after reminding her of the Oscar buzz surrounding the film’s release, she refused on the grounds that a) she wasn’t a fan of romantic comedies, and b) some reviewer said that it wasn’t reinventing the wheel. I offered c), what if a movie just gives the wheel a spin of its own? Can we quantify what’s groundbreaking ? Why should that be the standard, anyway? My friend groaned some more—no dice. And since I only have one friend, I did what anyone in my position would do: I recruited my mother, whose opinion I trusted to settle the matter. If David O. Russell was a worldrenowned chef, then a movie like Silver Linings Playbook would be his special dish. It features his favorite and most effectively use d ing re d ients—l ikable characters who are not wholly sane—mixed together in a sturdy pan designed for maximum flavor infusion. That’s essentially what’s happening in Silver Linings: Pat (Bradley Cooper) has just been released from an eight-month stint in a state mental clinic after nearly beating to death a fellow teacher who’s been getting extramarital with his wife. Said wife files a restraining order, but Pat thinks it’s only a matter of time before he wins her back. Meanwhile, he’s living in his parents’ attic, just a few steps away from his obsessive-compulsive father (Robert De Niro) and his loving , long-suffering mother ( Jacki Weaver). A dinner party gone wrong introduces Pat to Tiffany ( Jennifer Lawrence), a young widow-cum-recoveringsex-addict whose own neuroses
gladly rise to the challenge of out-crazying Pat’s. To remind us that we are indeed watching a rom-com, however heavy the proceedings at hand may seem, a bargain involving dancing is struck, and on top of that, a bet involving the Philadelphia Eagles. The movie’s akin to throwing two betta fish in a tank and sitting back to watch the show. The whole time you can almost hear Russell’s laughter as he was adapting the screenplay from Matthew Quick’s novel of the same name.
SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK David O. Russell AMC River East
There is a lot at play here that works. I, along with the rest of the world, have been a fan of Jennifer Lawrence since 2010’s Winter’s Bone. Since then her ascent to the A-list has been almost textbook, exciting largely because of her lack of any formal acting training whatsoever. Because of this, or in spite of it, Lawrence is fierce, dynamic, and startlingly relatable. As Tiffany she is especially mercurial, and she establishes gravity in scenes where Cooper cannot. I’ll have to contribute to the buzz and say the work Lawrence has put in here is indeed worth another Oscar nod. De Niro, also, is at his best, and I’d argue that the film’s emotional crux finds itself not in the central romance, but instead in his portrayal of a father fighting his own issues so that he might help his son fight his as well. That both actors have been given such an opportunity to shine is a testament to the power of the character-driven script—
Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence) and Pat (Bradley Cooper) express their mutual affection with insolent looks. COURTESY OF THE WEINSTEIN COMPANY
while not perfect, it makes for a compulsively watchable, occasionally laug h-out-loud funny movie. Not everything’s gold (or silver) here, though. Russell’s camerawork is no more stable than the characters it focuses on. When he’s cutting away from speaking characters to focus on details—such as Pat’s clenched hands, adorned by the wedding ring he refuses to stop wearing—his work is immersive, and worth the shakiness. When he’s quickly zooming in on the neighborhood that is Pat’s entire world, however, it becomes jarring , and superfluous. We’re already invested thanks to the sharp script and slew of talented actors. Forcing a frame to rapidly hone in on a pair of Tiffany’s unworn flats is giving me nothing
but nausea. This sort of frenetic aimlessness is echoed elsewhere: Pat’s friend Danny (Chris Tucker), who he met while institutionalized, literally comes and goes throughout the entire movie. In one scene he’s sitting in Pat’s living room, hanging with the family, only for the cops to show up a few seconds later to drag him back to the ward. Apparently he hasn’t been legally released yet? This happens no fewer than three separate times, and Tucker, who’s finally reining in his shriek, never actually gets an arc, or a discernible purpose to speak of. Similarly, we experience a brief and bizarre subplot that’s sort of speaking towards cultural assimilation, as well as a setup between strung-out Tiffany and her high-strung sister (a
role played as well as it could’ve been by Julia Stiles) that’s never resolved. Meanwhile, as lead, Bradley Cooper is good, but I still can’t decide if he’s good-good or just Bradley-Cooper-good (kind of like Justin Timberlake in The Social Network, where his performance is just solid enough to stop you from wondering the whole time what he’s doing in this movie). Cooper has charisma, undoubtedly, and I bought his chemistry with Lawrence, but his charm never manages to compensate for his lack of presence. Silver Linings Playbook doesn’t reinvent the wheel; my friend was right about that. But I’m still not sure if it had to. Because what it does—which is take what could’ve been a trite, tactless MOVIES continued on page 8
Attenberg does suburban family drama medium-well Hannah Gold Arts Editor
Jami Attenberg’s new novel The Middlesteins involves Jews, jokes, hamburgers, and fries. COURTESY OF GRAND CENTRAL PUBLISHING
For some reason, Jewish comedy lends itself very well to jokes involving food. It is hard to determine whether this indicates pathetic frivolity or whether it is simply too wonderful for words—probably, it is both. Take, for example, a joke from the opening monologue of Annie Hall, which, out of deference to Woody Allen, I will paraphrase. Two women are having lunch in the Catskills. One comments that the food is terrible; the other agrees and adds that the portions are upsettingly small. This, he proclaims, is exactly how he feels about life, “full of loneliness, and misery, and suffering, and unhappiness, and it’s all over much too quickly.” Jami Attenberg’s new novel The Middlesteins adds something special to this tradition of tragicomic consumption, yet her setup is notably different from Allen’s. It is a matter of portions—instead of ingesting too little, her characters often partake in far too many gustatory pleasures. Specifically, too many Big Macs, McRib sandwiches, Diet Cokes and apple pies the size of pocket protectors.
At the beginning of the novel we find Edie Middlestein weighing in at just under 250 pounds, couched in her modern-day suburban Chicago house, preparing for her second diabetes-related surgery on the same leg. We get a bit of her back-story—in the ’70s she was an overweight child living in a household that worshipped Golda Meir and Coca Cola in the same breath. Naturally intelligent and fiery, she went to law school, where she met her future husband, Richard Middlestein, the owner of a local pharmacy, with whom she had two children. The book is a bit of jumble at first as it flits around in time and switches perspective every few pages from Edie to Richard to their sour daughter Robin, always in third-person omniscient. The descriptions we get of these characters often feel like little more than bits of raw data, which nobody would find funny unless they knew someone exactly like one of these people. For example, Robin, coming off a sullen childhood in Chicagoland, lives in Brooklyn for two hellish years with three other roommates ( Jennifer, Julie, and Jordan) who are doing Teach for America and described as such: “all Jewish, they all had gone to Midwestern
colleges, and they all had individual joint bank accounts with their mothers.” This sort of detour into the self-deprecating inside joke comes off as disingenuous at first, probably because the novel lacks focus. However, the main dish, and certainly the most complex, is Edie, who, as everyone in the family knows, is slowly killing herself with a diet of fast food and greasy Chinese takeout. As the book progresses, her family begins to mobilize around her in an effort to stop her from eating herself to death. Then, in the midst of this family crisis, Richard, previously understood to be the passive, supportive husband, walks out on his wife. He takes up with a British expat named Beverley who, at fifty-something, still has naturally red hair (or so he believes). The plot gains steam as we become more entangled in the lives of Edie and Richard’s son Benny and his wife Rachelle, who starts obsessively following her mother-in-law through a maze of McDonald’s and Burger King drive-throughs. Rachelle is razor-thin, always appropriately dressed, and gets all tense around the mouth when her waiter leaves croutons on her salad after having expressly MIDDLESTEINS continued on page 9
THE CHICAGO MAROON | ARTS | November 27, 2012
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With Silver Linings, Russell gives us a romantic comedy with brains and plenty of soul MOVIES continued from page 7 romantic comedy and infuse it with some brains and heart and an undeniable sense of life—is pretty damn good in its own right. Sure, Russell’s latest isn’t perfect, but hell if this wheel doesn’t make for a comfortable, mom-approved ride. —Daniel Rivera
Yann Martel’s Man Booker Prizewinning novel, Life of Pi, is a story that seems like it would be nearly impossible to transfer into an engaging movie. Ang Lee, however, manages the task with flying colors. The film follows the stirring tale of Pi Patel, a 17-year-old Indian boy and the only human survivor of the Japanese ship Tsimtsum. The aesthetically stunning journey of Pi and a Bengal tiger named Richard Parker introduces the audience to a human struggle difficult to grasp and yet so easy to understand.
LIFE OF PI Ang Lee AMC River East
Top: Pi Patel (Suraj Sharma) and a Bengal tiger that, thanks to CGI, looks more real than a real tiger. The two must rely on each other to survive in an epic raft journey in Ang Lee’s adaptation of Life of Pi. COURTESY OF FOX 2000 PICTURES Bottom: Nobody gets lower than Lindsay Lohan, who stars as silver-screen legend Elizabeth Taylor in the Lifetime movie Liz & Dick. COURTESY OF LIFETIME
uR dOc FiLms dOt OrG
r doc Films (wE sTiLl ExIst tOo)
Although the majority of the film takes place on the lifeboat that carries the two survivors, it is interwoven with flashbacks from Pi’s childhood in India and the adult voice of the narrator. The audience is first introduced to a middle-aged Indian man greeting a writer in his home in Montreal, Canada. We learn that, as a boy, he found protection in one religion, and that, by the age of twelve, he had managed to follow three. Pi’s family lived in the small South Indian city of Pondicherry, where his father was the local zookeeper. Later, a political conflict forced the Patel family to move to Canada. On the voyage to Canada, a storm compelled Pi to share a lifeboat with a tiger. His struggle for survival and simultaneous spiritual voyage are profound and cinematically daring , so much so that the audience finds itself wishing that the journey would never end. At times, it is easy to believe that Suraj Sharma, the actor who played 17-yearold Pi, was on set with a real tiger. The possible existence of human spirit in the tiger’s eyes is of ongoing question in the film. Its CGI technolog y convinces the audience that there is. The tiger is realistic enough that he grows on you, and you find yourself worrying in equal amounts for him and Pi. The computer-generated imagery also succeeds in giving a magical beauty to the ocean. One catches oneself MOVIES continued on page 9
THE CHICAGO MAROON | ARTS | November 27, 2012
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Martel’s novel is infused with stunning CGI technology; Liz & Dick is beautiful, but damned MOVIES continued from page 8 wishing to be in Pi’s position, just to witness it. Oscar-winning director Lee has once again succeeded in giving the audience a cinematic pleasure with a genuinely inspiring story. The film stays true to the original source material, but does not put too many constraints on the visual adaptation. As incredible as the visual effects and the cinematic techniques are, the film is still fundamentally a faithful retelling of the original, breathtaking tale of Pi’s extreme journey to manhood. It follows the 227 days that he and the tiger spend at sea, fighting to keep their spirits high as they develop a relationship with each other. The present-day episodes, intended to bolster the plotline at the beginning of the film, are its weakest link. Although Irrfan Khan was wisely cast in the role of adult Pi, he initially distracts from the story’s central plot. As the story progresses, however, the shifts from young Pi to adult Pi increase awareness of the fear and suffering he experiences. The film’s beauty is consistently impressive. The
Middlesteins deadpans to the end MIDDLESTEINS continued from page 7
been asked not to. On top of her busy schedule of being a voyeuristic desperate housewife, she is planning a So You Think You Can Dance– themed B’nai Mitzvah for her twins, which turns out to be the setting of the most hilarious scene in the book. Meanwhile, Benny loses most of his hair due to stress, occasionally pleads with his wife to be less uptight, smokes a lot of weed in his backyard, and generally resembles a slightly younger Lester Burnham who never gets his groove back. By the end of the book, though, the familial panorama of quirky details and cheap laughs gives way to a series of melancholy events, the weakening of some relationships, and the strengthening of others. Though seeped in tragedy, the end of the novel is fundamentally ambivalent. Attenberg tells us breezily what befalls the Middlesteins after her novel’s close, and then everyone sort of hangs their heads, graciously bows, and takes leave of the story. Her tale isn’t cautionary and it’s not a cop-out. In fact, after all of the crying and kvetching, there doesn’t seem to be anything remarkable about it. However, the book is much better off for its honest depiction of ambiguity, even in heavy moments. Attenberg’s novel can be flippant at times, and full of shallow hyperbole at others (all of the family members think to themselves, “She’s going to die,” all the time, without prompting ). But as the story progresses it becomes clear that, like the joke about the women at the Catskills resort, The Middlesteins is a weighty story told in small portions. Life eats away at each of its characters slowly, but also sweetly, and the characters find much to relish in their dysfunctional suburban setup.
scene in which a whale capsizes Pi’s self-made raft in the middle of the night is just as stunning as one in which tears run down adult Pi’s cheek as he completes the immeasurably unique story of his journey to manhood. Life of Pi is an emotionally moving, bittersweet, visually inspiring cinematic experience, and, without a doubt, one of the top films of this holiday season. —Ellen Rodnianski
“Visually interesting”: the only positive thing that came to mind as I fought not to change the channel during Liz & Dick, Lifetime’s madefor-TV biopic about Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. The movie was supposed to signal a career comeback for Lindsay Lohan (who has had several chances before) and also promised to capture one of the first fated-yet-doomed celebrity romances of modern times. It seemed a perfect match since Lohan could, supposedly, truly empathize with Taylor’s life trajectory. Both were child stars who became adults stalked
by paparazzi, hammered by tabloids, and obsessively tracked in the public eye. Surely, Lindsay is the modern Liz. But just like the romance between Liz and Dick, the movie fell to pieces in a painful and less interesting way. Maybe because of Lohan’s terrible accent? Chrissy Teigan (@ chrissyteigan) said it best: “Lindsay Lohan had a better British accent in the parent trap and that is not a joke.” It really wasn’t a joke, since there were no attempts to mimic Liz Taylor’s famous lilt. After the first 30 minutes, I stopped keeping track of the number of times Lohan slipped into her own voice. All I could do was hope my ears would forgive me afterwards. Maybe because there was no magic? As much as I wanted to believe in the romance and love between Liz and Dick (played by Grant Bowler), it just was not there. Bowler, who is great as Connor Owens in Ugly Betty, played Burton as pitiable, brooding mush, rather than a swashbuckling, debonair man’s man. Burton would never have simpered and sulked after not winning an Oscar for the second time. Bowler did. This did not fit well with a Taylor who seemed emotionally distant, if not dead. Really, the emotional problem was
the biggest problem of all. Not only was there a general lack of emotion, but there were also misplaced attempts at emotion, all of them cringe-worthy. The worst moment occurs when Liz and Dick sit side-by-side in a black room conducting an interview. It hurts to watch Lohan’s pitiable attempts at emotional depth while she simultaneously builds a protective public front. Perhaps Lohan’s inability to express genuine emotion stems from her continuous smearing in the tabloids, but that cannot excuse the sad portrayal she presents in the film.
LIZ & DICK Lloyd Kramer Lifetime Channel
One would think that just one ‘interview’ moment would be enough. Sadly, none of the people who would think such a thing were in the Lifetime editing room, and the clips plagued the entire movie, bringing down an already sinking ship. Though Liz & Dick assaulted most of the senses, it was a feast for the eyes. The locations were gorgeous, as was the wardrobe. When the
camera panned across a new location, I wanted to be there—in that exact place, at that time. Each outfit seemed meticulously cared for and crafted. Of course, Taylor’s extravagant outfits (and a few less flashy ones) were stunning and will, hopefully, be seen on socialites this upcoming season. I could feel the work, preparation, and love that went into the visual production. If only someone had taken the time to apply a careful mindset to the acting. Maybe the writing was not the best in the world. Maybe the supporting cast members were not worthy of Emmys. Maybe it was the hype. Maybe a lot of things. What it comes down to, for everyone who watched and will watch Liz & Dick, is that Lohan did a subpar job of portraying Taylor. Lohan could never have transformed into Taylor. The expectations were high, and the attempt did not meet even their shadow. To all those ‘maybes’: the answer is, yes, those were certainly part of the problem, but it was Lohan who truly doomed this movie, and possibly her own future in film. Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) said it best: “[#lizanddick] is sad bad, not fun bad.” —Kunal Basu-Dutta
Become a
Resident Head In the University House System
Resident Heads live in the College Houses to provide guidance, advice and direction to members of the undergraduate House communities. Advanced graduate students are encouraged to apply. Single, domestic-partnered, or married persons who are at least 25 years of age can apply. Children are welcome.
Compensation is valued at approximately $18,000 for a single person. For married persons, the value is increased by the meals and health benefits provided for spouses and children and has been estimated to be as high as $32,000. Compensation consists of a cash stipend, furnished apartment for 12 months of the year, meals when the College is in session, and University student medical insurance for full-time registered students and their dependents.
Application materials and additional information are available on the Office of Undergraduate Student Housing website at http://housing.uchicago.edu
[ Information Sessions \ Information Sessions about this position and the selection process will be held on: Wednesday, November 28, at 7:00pm – Burton-Judson Courts (1005 E. 60th St.) Thursday, December 6, at 7:00pm – Burton-Judson Courts (1005 E. 60th St.) Wednesday, January 9, at 7:00pm – Burton-Judson Courts (1005 E. 60th St.) Saturday, January 12, at 10:00am – Fairfax (1369 E. Hyde Park Blvd.) Attendance at one of these sessions is required for all applicants.
[ APPLICATION DEADLINE: JANUARY 15, 2013 \
THE CHICAGO MAROON | ARTS | November 27, 2012
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HUNGER STRIKE
Barbe-Q.E.D. Iliya Gutin Senior Arts Staff Bulletproof glass should not be a prerequisite for good barbecue. Wonder Bread and soggy fries are no substitute for the low-and-slow method of cooking. Chairs and tables are always a welcome addition— you know, for sitting and eating. No, the interior of a car doesn’t count. While the presence (or absence) of these things may be associated with mighty fine barbecued meats, it doesn’t take the statistical witchery of Nate Silver to remind you that correlation does not imply causation. Free-spirited BBQ cookery and structured restaurant competence can peacefully co-exist, and even prosper. Confirming this hypothesis, though, proved to be a challenge. My previous attempts at testing it were met with disappointment at Lillie’s Q and Chicago Q (these attempts were also a heavy encumbrance for my limited research budget). But I knew
it was necessary to expand my sample size, to take my analysis to the next level. And the gamble paid off. After my first experiment with Smoque BBQ, off I-90 up in Irvington, I felt confident upgrading the successful barbecuerestaurant-hybrid hypothesis to a theory. After repeated meat-coma-inducing trials—I mean, empirically rigorous fieldwork—my theory had become barbecue law. If you find your way over to Smoque and see a long line snaking its way out the door, curb your exasperated sighs, which will soon become exaltations of pleasure. The ’cue queue moves fast, expedited by one of the more efficient ordering and seating systems I’ve had the pleasure of participating in. The open, cafeteria-style communal dining experience is perfect for setting your elbows on the table and getting to work on some barbecue. It’s not too chic, and it’s not too shabby. It’s just right. So there you are, all seated
and patiently awaiting the sweet sound of your order number—blissfully unaware of the meat hurricane hurdling your way. Ribs, chicken, pork, brisket, and sausage all sit ready to lay their vengeance upon thee—and what a sweet vengeance it is.
SMOQUE BBQ 3800 North Pulaski Road Full rack of ribs: $19.95
God may have taken a rib away from Adam, but there was no chance anyone was taking one of Smoque’s incredible ribs away from me. The restaurant serves both baby backs and St. Louis–style ribs, but I won’t pretend I could discern the difference between the two—mainly because both are amazing. They’re so goddamn meaty, too; they erase all those dark memories of ordering ribs and getting skeletal remains of livestock. The sauce that comes on the side is part genius, part revelation. Smoque knows its
ribs are good, and no sauce can or should cover that up. To sauce or not to sauce is a decision only you can make. Barbecued chicken trades in a traditional rotisserie-style exterior for a luxuriant, smoky bathrobe. Cast it aside like some late night Cinemax skin flick to reveal pink, tender meat; you just cannot achieve the likes of this with any other cooking style. It’s not raw, but it is awe-inspiring. And as long as we’re on the subject of pretty colors giving way to pretty amazing flavors, the sliced brisket covers a spectrum from gray to pink and charred black. It’s probably the best brisket I have ever had; it melts away into nothingness, rendering you capable of infinite consumption. My mind still cannot fathom the chemistry behind meat this tender. Hopefully you’ll make the wise decision of leaving some space on your tray for a mound of pulled pork, retaining the shape of the scooper it pops out of. And finally, there’s the Texas sausage. I’ll own up to
my oversight, and admit that I have yet to sample this fantastic forcemeat, but I hear only good things. I like to think of it as justification for future data-gathering expeditions. Even the side dishes know their place, occupying the perfect niche in this meat ensemble. They are just good enough to be pleasant, but never dare to undermine the barbecue’s smoky solo performance. (The bass player should be good, but he never gets the groupies.) The coleslaw is the great, light vinegary counterpoint it’s designed to be, and the brisket chili is surprisingly full of heat (though brisket, not so much). The mac ’n’ cheese is as mac ’n’ cheese does; no complaints here. Or maybe you just want some fries for sauce-sponging, or something to soothe your aching sweet tooth, like peach cobbler served in a cup. Like I said, nothing spectacular, but nothing offensive. No distractions from the true object of desire. Who do I have to thank for
letting me in on the secret of Smoque? Good ol’ Guy Fieri, and my favorite Food Network time-killing device: a Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives marathon. Despite the seemingly limitless pleasure derived from shitting all over Guy Fieri, both man and franchise (*cough* New York Times *cough*), I refuse to deny the allure of his show and the fact that it champions good, unexpected restaurants. The emphasis is on food for eating and enjoying, not food for thought. Restaurants that are shrines to the lost art of being a regular. The success of Smoque, and the popularity of Guy’s surfer-bro laxitude, lies in the ability to harmonize comfort and cooking. No matter how good a dish may taste, something crucial is lost when you can’t feel good while eating it—or, in Guy’s case, preparing it. Master these basic principles, and you will prosper. Smoque certainly has, since it shows that you only need two things in a proper barbecue restaurant: good meat and a good seat.
THE CHICAGO MAROON | SPORTS | November 27, 2012
THE WINTER SEASON, IN PHOTOS
Top left: A swimmer competes in the Phoenix Fall Classic. The Chicago men finished first out of 11 teams at the competition. JAMIE MANLEY | THE CHICAGO MAROON Middle left: Second-year Joe Ellis attempts to pin down North Central wrestler Mike Gibson during a home competition earlier this season. ELLEN RODNIANSKI | THE CHICAGO MAROON Bottom left: Men’s basketball head coach Mike McGrath speaks to his team during a timeout. JAMIE MANLEY | THE CHICAGO MAROON Above: Participants warm up in Myers-McLoraine Pool prior to the Phoenix Fall Classic diving competition. VENKATESH KRISHNAN | THE CHICAGO MAROON
ATHLETES OF THE WEEK The executive boards of the Women’s Athletic Association and the Order of the “C” have implemented a new program, “Athlete of the Week,” to highlight athletes making a big impact on the campus community—both on and off the field. We hope the MAROON’s series on these ‘Uncommon’ athletes can start a conversation...and not just within the walls of Ratner.
COURTESY OF STEPHAN BATES
JULIA SIZEK, WOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY
BILLY WHITMORE, MEN’S CROSS COUNTRY
Head Coach Chris Hall: “Julia Sizek earned her first cross country All-American award this past weekend for her 31st-place finish at the NCAA Championships. This is the second time she has been an All-American, with the other coming in track last winter as a member of our distance medley relay team. This entire season, Julia has been our team’s front runner. This past weekend in an extraordinarily competitive field, she had her culminating performance as a cross country runner. Many people have the goal of attaining All-American status and Julia had the opportunity this weekend to achieve something she has been working toward for four years. She got out extremely competitively, moving right to the top 35 runners in the first 1,000 meters and then rising up to as high as 20th at one point.”
Head Coach Chris Hall: “Billy Whitmore has proven to be one of the best big meet runners in the country. This marks back-to-back years of All-American performances by him in cross country. Over the past three weeks, Billy has been dealing with a calf injury that affected the way he competed at both our conference and regional meets. But this weekend, he put it out of his mind and really attacked the race. He got out in a strong position, moving to the top 15 around the 1,000-meter mark and for a period of time moved to fourth place and led a chase pack that was trying to close the gap on the lead runners. I feel this was perhaps one of the greatest challenges of Billy’s career: to put his leg issues out of his mind and will himself to a spectacular finish.”
WAA Faculty Adviser and Softball Head Coach Ruth Kmak: “Julia has been an integral part of what WAA has been working on this fall. She has taken the lead on various projects, and if she says she’ll do it, it’s done. I admire her work ethic, reliability and initiative.”
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SPORTS
IN QUOTES “I’m usually a ninja, but my Spidey-senses told me he was going to take a fall, so I saved his life. He owes me his first-born or something.” —New York Giants TE Martellus Bennett, whose catches Sunday included a falling fan.
Augustana Vikings invade, conquer Ratner Center as Maroons fall to 3–1 Men’s Basketball Alexander Sotiropoulos Senior Sports Staff The Maroons were faced with a difficult task as they prepared to take on regional rivals Augustana at the Ratner Center last Saturday. Not only were the Vikings undefeated going into the contest, but four Chicago players caught a stomach virus in the days leading up to the game. “That really kind of knocked us for a loop a little bit,” head coach Mike McGrath said. “We didn’t have a terrific week of practice, in part because of that.” The illness put the Maroons (3–1) at an immediate disadvantage in the game and Augustana (3–0) were able to capitalize, handing Chicago its first loss of the season, 70–52. Augustana’s centers, Brandon Kunz and Kevin Schlitter, combined for 24 points. Fourth-year Matt MacKenzie, in his 27 minutes of playing time, faced the task of guarding the rotation of centers. “Our depth and size [was] a little limited in terms of not having [first-year] Nate [Brooks], and [third-year] Sam [Gage] not being 100 percent healthy,” McGrath said. “[MacKenzie] got worn down a little bit, and they kept going to it.” The Maroons did not
only have defensive problems down low. Augustana also shot 47.5 percent from the field and 44.4 percent from three-point range. “They were so physical that it kind of took us out of our stuff a little bit,” third-year Charlie Hughes said. “When that happened, we kind of collapsed which is kind of the hallmark of a young team.” Chicago, according to Hughes, was unable to prevent Augustana’s offensive drives, something they had scouted before the game. He partly attributes this to the illnesses. “We probably weren’t all on the same page like we could’ve been going into that game,” Hughes said. Offensively, the Maroons shot 37.5 percent from the field and were 3–13 from behind the arc. “We are a good three-point shooting team, but you have to get your offense started inside,” Hughes said. “Guys in the post were having trouble, and then, we weren’t able to get into the paint as much.” First-year point guard Royce Muskeyvalley, along with Gage, led the way for the Maroons with 12 points each. The Maroons’ leading scorer from their previous game, first-year guard Jordan Smith, was held to zero points. Going into the season, Hughes said that the Maroons had the goal of going at least
Charlie Hughes, a third-year, attempts a layup during a home game against Southwestern. JAMIE MANLEY | THE CHICAGO MAROON
3–1 in regional action. With the loss to Augustana, Chicago heads into Wednesday’s match against Wheaton with a must win mentality. “It’s a big game because only one or two teams from our region get to go to the NCAA tournament,” Hughes said. “In a sense, playing the teams in
the region is like a little sort of league play.” Defeating Wheaton, first and foremost, will come down to Chicago’s offensive performance. “With Wheaton, the biggest key is to run a good offense and make them guard for extended periods of time and
not turn the ball over,” he said. At the defensive end, the Maroons will be looking to lower third-year guard Tyler Peters’ 22.3 points per game average. With a lineup that is on track to be healthy by Wednesday, McGrath is expecting the Maroons to exhibit greater
physical and mental toughness. “[Wheaton’s] a very good team, but we have a couple days to get ready for them and correct some of the mistakes we had Saturday,” he said. “I think we’ll come out and play hard.” Tip-off is scheduled for 8 p.m. at the Ratner Center.
Offensively bad: In battle of defensive teams, Chicago aims, shoots, misses Women’s Basketball Sam Zacher Sports Contributor
Third-year Julie Muguira was the most productive player for the Chicago team during their game last Sunday against Carthage, scoring 11 points and collecting 13 rebounds. COURTESY OF JOHN BOOZ
Turnovers and a lack of offensive production continued to afflict the Maroons (1–2), as they fell to Carthage (3–1) on the road Sunday by a score of 68–46. In this matchup of defensiveminded teams, Chicago took an early 10–4 lead. But then they let it slip. At the end of the first half, the Lady Reds went on a 15–0 run, heading into halftime up 35–21. “It was a tough matchup on the road against a very good team,” head coach Carissa Sain Knoche said. “Both teams are good defensively at ‘muddying up’ opponents’ offenses and I thought we did a good job of that in 30 of the 40 minutes. We had two fiveminute lapses in each half where we didn’t score and we didn’t get stops, and that’s a bad combination.” The Maroons fought hard on defense but couldn’t stop Carthage center Michelle Wenzel, who scored 18 points, forward Kristi Schmidt, who scored 12 points, and forward Cailee Corcoran, who added 11 points
and eight rebounds. “They had a big presence inside the paint, something we were expecting, but were obviously unable to stop,” fourth-year guard Jenna Lillemoe said. In the second half, Chicago was unable to overcome the firsthalf deficit, ultimately losing by 22 points. On Sunday, the Maroons coughed up the rock 19 times. In addition to turnovers, Chicago only had two players in double figures: third-year guard Julie Muguira and second-year guard Morgan Donovan, scoring 11 points each. The team shot just 27.8 percent from the field. “We struggled offensively and were not crisp and efficient enough, as seen by our field goal percentage and amount of turnovers,” Lillemoe said. However, offensive production was expected to be tough to find for a team that had lost 70 percent of its scoring from last season—graduating Taylor Simpson (12.7 points/game) and Morgan Herrick (11.3 points/game), among others. Second-year Hannah Ballard was named to the All-Tournament Team at Ripon,
but was held to only two points on 1–3 shooting on Sunday. Muguira and Donovan tried to pick up the slack. “I thought Julie [Muguira] and Morgan [Donovan] played tough for us and did a nice job on both ends of the floor,” Knoche said. But it wasn’t quite enough for the Maroons. Nevertheless, Knoche is looking on the bright side of the Maroons’ performances thus far. “I am [happy],” she said. “We are all learning every day and I see us moving in a positive direction.” Hoping to nab its second win of the season, Chicago takes on Wheaton on Wednesday. The Thunder (3–0) outscored their opponents 238–114 in their first three games this season. “Our goal is to continue to see improvement from what we have shown thus far,” Knoche said. “We have a tough stretch of games coming up against four very good CCIW teams so we need a ton of focus and effort over the next 10 days.” Tip-off at home this Wednesday against Wheaton is set for 6 p.m.